Xcode 8, iOS 10 Betas Released to Apple Developers

Apple this week released new betas to developers, including downloads of the Xcode 8 IDE and iOS 10 mobile operating system.

"Beta 5 of Xcode 8 is now available, and includes Swift 3 and SDKs that you can use to build and test apps for the latest release of macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS," the company said in a Tuesday post.

The new iOS 10 also hit beta 5, less than two weeks after beta 4, signaling a quickening of pace for the developers previews that might indicate the final release will come out soon. Some media reports predict that date may be as soon as one month away.

Among the dozens of new features in iOS 10 are: a new User Notification framework; a new speech recognition API; improved app searches; better security and privacy; and many more.

The new Xcode 8, meanwhile, "features new editor extensions that you can use to completely customize your coding experience," according to its Web site. "New runtime issues alert you to hidden bugs by pointing out memory leaks, and a new Memory Debugger dives deep into your object graph. Swift 3 includes more natural and consistent API naming, which you can experiment with in the new Swift Playgrounds app for iPad."

The new betas were made available to those registered in the Apple Developer Program, which costs $99 per year. Apple sometimes releases betas to the general public some time after they're provided to registered Apple developers.

Along with the iOS and Xcode betas, others released on Tuesday included new preview versions of macOS Sierra, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10.